Pranab Mukherjee to visit Chicago for two days

New Delhi, Jan 26 (ANI): Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee would be leaving for a two-day official visit to Chicago, US, on Saturday during which he is expected to hold discussions with business leaders of the corporate world.

During his visit, Mukherjee's first engagement on arrival would be to address the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, where a large number of business leaders of the corporate world are likely to participate.

These business leaders would mainly be from Fortune 500 companies as Chicago is Headquarter of 32 such companies including Boeing, Caterpillar, McDonalds, Kraft, Abbott Laboratories and Sara Lee among others.

During his address, Mukherjee is likely to share his perception about the Indian and Global economy especially when the world economic situation is in a state of flux. On the other hand, India today occupies the leadership position in the world order across various fields and has enormous resources, technology and skills with a pre-eminent position.

The Finance Minister is also likely to envisage the shared goals and objectives with these business leaders and invite them to become an active partner in India growth story. esides above, other major engagements of the Finance Minister include unveiling of Swami Vivekananda Memorial Plaque at the Art Institute of Chicago, inauguration of exhibitions of TagorePaintings at Art Institute of Chicago and signing of two agreements by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India with the Art Institute of Chicago for the "Vivekananda Memorial Programme for Museum Excellence" and with the University of Chicago for an endowment to establish "The Indian Ministry of Culture Vivekananda Chair."

Pranab Mukherjee would also unveil on January 28 an enhanced (engraved bas relief) Vivekananda Memorial Plaque, with Swami Vivekananda's embossed image on it. It will be installed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Museum to commomemorate Swamiji's historic Chicago Address before the World Parliament of Religions on September 11, 1893.

An agreement will also be signed during Mukherjee's aforesaid visit of the Vivekananda Memorial Programme for Museum Excellence. Under this programme, Art Institute of Chicago will work with Government of India to impart a broad range of knowledge on modern operations of Museums like conservation, planning of exhibitions etc. for a four-year period. Government of India will provide an amount of US$500,000 for conduct of this programme by the Art Institute of Chicago.

Under the Commemoration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Guru Rabindranath Tagore, apart from several other activities, for the first time ever, several exhibitions of Tagore's paintings are being organised in USA,France, Germany, UK, Singapore, Japan and South Korea by the National Gallery of Modern Art under Ministry of Culture in association with Visva Bharati University.

The exhibition, which would be inaugurated by the Finance MinisterPranab Mukherjee in Chicago on January 28 at the Art Institute of Chicago, is part of this series of exhibitions. It will put on display 61 of Tagore'spaintings.

The Finance Minister would return to New Delhi on January 30. (ANI)